Hyde Park, Osaka-ben and Where IsThe Smily Cyclist?

Am now pretty well settled in the new job - the office is great, the people are great... almost all the Japanese staff are from Osaka, so it is Osaka-ben vs. Tsugaru-ben in a fairly incomprehensible linguistic tussle... Apparently アンちゃん in Osaka-ben is a friendly name used for members of the Yakuza, not sure if that's better or worse than being a brother in Tsugaru-ben but anyway... As far as the work's concerned I've finished my first translation (all I have to do now is work out what the English means), attempted some bookkeeping, and done lots and lots of very useful random things.

As I'm gradually growing disillusioned with the commute, my walks through Hyde Park are becoming two of the best bits of my day. The best thing at the moment are the squirrels - pretty much every day they are out and about, gathering nuts, getting in the way of the cyclists, and generally being extremely cute. I did almost lose an ear to a low-flying pigeon yesterday, which makes pigeons second-most-dangerous-hyde-park-thing, after cyclists. I am one of a fairly small and pathetic minority of people who walk to work; there are cyclists, who seem very serious and efficient; hardcore bladers; and of course joggers who do silly things with their arms. "Excuse me but do you know your arm is doing that?!" I guess there is no obvious thing to do with arms when jogging but it would be funny to see someone every now and again running around Mexican-wave style or doing a little semaphore... Last week I developed a "Good Morning" level relationship (not time to say much more to a cyclist) with a girl who cycles past in the morning - she is very smiley and happy and makes my day, so have been looking out for her this week, but - nothing! Smiley Cyclist, where are you??

Came across some stuff about long-distance relationships on the web, and some woman who had managed to sell a book based on her "long distance" relationship with a guy all of five hours away whom she could "only" see twice a month... Lady, you have NO idea.

Megapost!!

Hey guys,
Well I know I have been really really slack about letting people know how things are going in the wild and exciting South-East of England… Have been home a month now so I guess it is time for a bit of a mega update.

Coming home was cool (if weird) to start with – the first couple of weeks were just spent catching up with relatives, admiring brides, and just touching base with the world I left behind. It’s been brilliant to see people again, some friends in particular whom I realised that it had really sucked to be away from. It’s also been great fun to do stuff (and eat stuff!) that I’d forgotten was absent in Aomori – everyday things just are easier for me here, and it’s great to be back in a place where I can buy and cook the food I actually want rather than a substitute for it – and just to ward off the urges there happens to be a sushi shop right on route through Victoria station! All the sushi are individually wrapped in cellophane which is kinda cute, if annoying when you try to eat it on the train and the sho-yu goes everywhere!! Cannot over-state my praise for real jacket potatoes with baked beans, sandwiches with real bread, or for some reason picked beetroot which has become one of my fave things since getting back!! Maybe it reminds me of daikons?!

Anyway, I was really struck from quite early on, having come home to the remaining boxes of articles and memories from various other phases of my life, how much both I and this place have moved on in three years, and how the life I left is no longer a life I can squeeze back into. So I feel a bit like I’m running around trying to establish for myself the life I want, a new identity that reflects and incorporates the things I learnt and became in Japan. Step one was finding a job, and after three weeks of agencies looking for jobs for me (!!), and tripping up to London and back for interviews, I had two offers (was a lot more stressful than it sounds when I was waiting for the one I really wanted to decide whether they wanted me too or not!!) – but they did and I feel incredibly lucky that things got sorted out so fast.

My new job is as administrator and translator for the London office of a Japanese pharmaceutical firm, and I just finished my first week there yesterday. It’s a small office of predominantly Japanese staff, everyone seems pretty cool and they’ve all been really nice in helping me settle in. The work is a nice mixture of straight-forward reception duties, preparing their accounts (new one for me – have like, NO idea lol!!), helping with correspondence in English, and some pretty specialised translation jobs which will (have only had a glimpse as yet) serve to keep their non-Japanese-speaking managers up to date on the current projects of the company as a whole. Am just so excited cos it is exactly the kind of job I wanted, I never dreamed I would be doing translating as part of my first real job but thanks to a particularly on-the-ball agency I have the chance to do something I really love, and I do indeed find myself looking forward to going to work every day.

- Which is just as well cos I currently have to get up at 5.30 every morning to do it! Am commuting from my parents’ place which is actually only just over an hour from London, but the walking either end makes it more than two hours door-to-door. The cool thing though, is that I get to walk through Hyde Park (one of the largest parks in London) every morning and evening, which is just really beautiful and relaxing. London (or at least the bit I see of it!) is really cool, loads of very old grand buildings, statues, arches and so on, and there is just such a variety of people – it seems like 9 times out of 10 the people behind you in the queue in Sainsbury’s aren’t speaking English, and only about 7 times out of 10 can I even work out what language it is they are speaking!! There are lots of people in the park – particularly in the morning – cycling, running, blading, I even saw a guy unicycling to work the other day!! I just love it.

So that, basically, is my life. I get back just before 8 and have dinner and go to bed (apologies to the people, oh ok person, oh ok SORRY DEE!!, who e-mailed me as I just haven’t had time to write but will do soon I promise!!) It’s not as bad as it sounds as there’s plenty of time to read and study and talk to people on the train, and it’s my first real weekend today which feels very good indeed! I guess I will get used to it and anyway, with a bit of luck I will be able to move further into London in a month or so… that is the next stage for me, along with looking up a load of old friends and just hanging out a bit more – I really miss all of you guys back in Japan, and I miss having so many cool people around and all the mad fun stuff we used to get up to. What’s going on in Aomori? Did you have the dirty-welcome-party-in-a-muddy-field? Any gossip??! (there must be!)

Anyway, I think that’s most of the news for now. Will get some pictures posted if I can find somewhere to do it that doesn’t involve dial-up (some things at home have sadly not changed that much!!) I love and miss you all very much, and like, hey, write sometimes yeh?! oxox